Today belonged to the Chinese New Year. We gave it over almost entirely to eating and to meeting relatives — good food, warm company — and it ended, as it should, with the ritual giving of lucky money to the children. We were a little early for the date itself, but no one seemed to mind, and neither did we.
Worth noticing
This is no ordinary New Year: 2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse, a pairing of animal and element that comes round only once every sixty years. It carries a certain superstition — Fire Horse years have a folk reputation for producing spirited, wilful characters — which makes the small red envelopes of lucky money, lai see, feel all the more like a quiet wish for the year ahead.